These are two songs that have been for a while in my winamp playlist. Not that amazing, but that sticks in your head and soon you become obsessed…

It quickly becomes annoying.

My favorite.

Remix is far better than original, but that’s not the true reason why you listen to the music. You listen to this because you have watched the clip at least once.

Apparently a big hit in 2008, I am listening a lot to this one atm… Wait Universal disactivated embedding for this videoclip…　Ok found another one. Wait it seems it’s from a drama, Rookies (and a manga I think). Looks cool, maybe I should give it a go.

The Carpenters. Never heard of them before coming to Japan. I had already heard some of their “hits” though. Their music aged badly, it sounds old and it actually is. Almost 40 years-old. Don’t get me wrong, the music is nice but…

Ok. Get into the mood, click on the link:

The Carpenters

Now imagine you are in a cafeteria, poorly decorated, old chairs, yellow light, and very few people inside. You feel like you are in the 70s. But no you are in 2009. And in Japan. And in my university.

For almost 6 months every night, speakers of the shokudo played The Carpenters, and only the Carpenters. Maybe they had only the “Greatest Hits of The Carpenters” CD, I don’t know. At first, this is fun. After a month, it becomes depressing. We students guessed it was maybe the chef’s favorite band.

But things become more bizarre when you go to the dental clinic, and what are they playing?? The Carpenters of course… A global conspiration? Japanese love for the Carpenters?

Google Japan returns 8 million links for 50 cent, 582 000 for Green Day and 319 000 for The Carpenters, so popularity might not be so huge after all, at least on the Internet (I guess the hardcord fans might be a bit old for internet now :p ).

All I can say is, now, wherever I go, I get a strange feeling when I hear the Carpenters… The music sounds like these old songs in horror movies…

Last but not least, the mega-bonus for the Carpenters fans, The Carpenters singing their hit “Sing” in Japanese:

It’s always good to have basics: grammar, vocabulary, kanjis… But many people studying Japanese actually wonder why what they hear in the drama they are watching and their japanese book is so different.

Don’t look further, I got the perfect books for you. I saw them at the last floor of Tower Records, in Shibuya.

True Japanese Books

Ok, first, the best-seller for gaijins: “Making Out in Japanese“. Available here for example. Actually this book covers the “making out” part but also daily situations. Pretty interesting, and quite different from any of the textbooks you’ve ever read.

Then you have “Outrageous Japanese“. Available here for example. Funny. Apparently some parts are outdated but I’m no expert.

Last but not least, “The Real Japanese You Were Never Taught in School“. This one might actually be the most outdated.

The point is you don’t read these kind of books because you actually want to learn something, but because it’s funny.

In these books, there were sentences of the “Take it, bitch!”-style, or “Please hurry and come in me, I have a date with my boyfriend”. “Oh Johnny, you’re so great. I’m like the Niagara Falls down there.”

Things you will never use when speaking Japanese or that you will never use before asking a Japanese friend “Is that correct?”.

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Hum hum. Ca fait un moment que j'ai pas donne signe de vie sur ce blog. Il est temps de reparer cette erreur…

Il faut dire que j'ai ete plutot occupe ces derniers temps, avec dans le desordre une journee a Nagaoka, plusieurs voyages a Muikamachi, divers workshops career-related, l'alien registration/ National Health Insurance, quelques soirees, des "pre-enrollment" programs en veux-tu en voila, et enfin le "Welcome Day". Puis j'ai egalement enfin recu mon pc ! Donc j'uploade petit a petit des photos (visibles dans la partie "Photos" du site). Je vais essayer de faire un post pour chaque evenement, mais pas forcement dans l'ordre chronologique parce que j'ai pas envie de me compliquer la vie .

Bref, le Welcome Day. En fait il s'agit plutot d'une welcome matinee mais bon, pas la peine de chipoter.

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